Nightly Grades: Mike Conley sinks the Spurs

By Royce Young | NBA writer

April 1, 2013 11:15 PM ET

Each night, Eye on Basketball brings you what you need to know about the games of the NBA. From great performances to terrible clock management, the report card evaluates and eviscerates the good, the bad and the ugly from the night that was.

Conley had himself a game against the Spurs. He had 23 points total, but his last five were huge. He hit a deep 3 with 30 seconds left to tie the game at 90-90, then a driving layup with 0.6 left to give Memphis a 92-90 lead, and eventually the win.

A critical, necessary 112-102 win over the Blazers for the Jazz that keeps them sitting in eighth in the West. And it means the Lakers have to win to get back to even with them. With the Jazz holding the tiebreaker over the Lakers, the Jazz essentially have a 1.5-game lead right now.

The Thunder didn't play, but they had themselves a pretty good night anyway. The Spurs lost to the Grizzlies, narrowing San Antonio's lead to just one game over OKC with a showdown between the two coming Thursday. And not just that, the Raptors also lost, officially eliminating them from the playoffs and improving the lottery pick the Thunder own of theirs.

They beat the Bobcats, which isn't a grand achievment, but they beat them down. The Bucks scored 131 points and had a number of guys fill up the stat sheet while doing it. Larry Sanders went for 24 points and 13 rebounds. Monta Ellis had 19 points and 14 assists. They hit 14 3s. They took 101 shots, hitting 51 of them. And they won by 29.

His team lost, but Gay had one of those games that keeps people believing he's a good player. Gay dropped 34 points on 13-18 shooting, and added five assists and six rebounds to go with it. It wasn't enough as Toronto's defense completely collapsed the final six minutes against Detroit, but Gay was impressive offensively.

The Spurs have dropped two straight, both at the buzzer. One came against the shorthanded Heat, with tonight's coming against the Grizzlies while the Spurs were shorthanded. It was a loss kind of by choice as Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard sat, but it means the Thunder now

No Paul Pierce, no Kevin Garnett and pretty much, no Boston Celtics in Minneapolis tonight. The Celtics didn't really show up. It's not like a bad loss or anything as the Celtics seem content with their current playoff positioning, but they've blown an opportunity to climb the standings.